Page 85 of The Marriage Deal
Spookers lets out a loud meow and I jump. Briggs chuckles. I ignore him as I give Spookers a pet. Clearly, it’s a good pet because he crawls into my lap.
I clear my throat. “I didn’t realize Shana was going out with Nash tonight.”
“She mentioned it while you were in the shower earlier.” I’d been covered in dirt when I’d returned home, later than usual, from work. It’d been a day of deadheading.
“Oh.”
“Do you want to go out for dinner?”
I sigh, because I really, really don’t. “I’m actually pretty tired. Do you think we can just have an early night?”
He dips his chin, tugging his phone from his pocket. “I’ll order in.”
I perk up. “Pizza?”
The smile he gives me is a different kind of soft from every other smile he’s ever given me. Immediately, my throat feels tight. The air is suddenly thin. I think my hands are trembling.
“Yeah, Lilah, we can do pizza.”
“With olives?” The request comes out sounding raspy.
Briggs nods again. “If that’s what you want.”
“I want.”
He taps his phone and places an online order. Then he says, “It’ll be a bit. Sit with me out on the deck? It looks like one of them storms you love so much is rolling in.”
He doesn’t have to ask me twice. I carry Spookers to his kitty hammock by the window, swipe a throw blanket from the couch and follow Briggs outside with Senior hot on my trail. I snuggle into the corner of the patio sectional when Briggs returns from the outdoor kitchen with a glass of chilled white wine and a bottle of beer.
I take the glass he hands me. “Thank you.”
“Welcome.” Briggs settles close beside me. Too close.
I pull my knees into my chest, getting comfortable. “You’re not a big fan of wine, are you?”
“I prefer a cold beer.”
I take a sip and bob my head. Then, desperate to fill the silence with something, anything, I say, “Shana and Nash are close.”
Briggs leans back, throwing one arm behind me. No one is here for the show. No one is here to impress or convince. It makes the easy way he comes in close feel natural and real. Too real. Too good.
I swallow a gulp of wine, waiting for his reply as he takes a pull from his beer. “Nash doesn’t have the greatest parents. They’re okay, I guess. There are a lot of people with worse, but Shana is better. And she always wanted another kid, so when I met Nash, and he was always around she sort of just adopted him as her own.”
“It’s nice he has her then.”
“Yeah, it is.” Briggs gives a huff of a laugh. “For him.”
Concern fills me. “You don’t like that they’re close?”
“No, I do. It’s just that I didn’t know how much of a pain in the ass it’d be having a brother. Nash tells her everything.”
Concern leaves me in low laughter. “I hear you inthat. I always wanted a sibling—preferably a sister, not going to lie—and then I sort of got my wish. Dakota tells my mom a lot too.”
“How’d that happen?”
“Dakota?” Briggs nods and I explain, “His mom and mine were best friends from childhood. When I say childhood, I mean childhood. Like, pre-k friends.”
“That’s far back.”
